Welcome to another edition of The Goggler Pull List! This week we get meta with Jeff Lemire and Dean Ormston’s Black Hammer and experience a new take on tokusatsu with Ultramega. We’re also giving away the massive Library Edition of the first volume of Black Hammer. All you have to do is read to the end of this post, fill in your details, and answer a question.
Let’s do this!
Black Hammer (Jeff Lemire, Dean Ormston)
Back in 2016, Dark Horse unveiled a brand new series from Jeff Lemire and Dean Ormston. Black Hammer was this strange, Twilight Zone-y send up of classic superhero comics, that felt like a Golden Age throwback with indie sensibilities. This meta-meditation on what it would be like for super-powered individuals to be stuck in a mundane, everyday life, features some of the best comic book storytelling you’re likely to come across.
The series follows the lives of Spiral City’s greatest heroes: Abraham Slam, Golden Gail, Barbalien, Colonel Randall Weird, Talky Walky, and Madam Dragonfly. Trapped on a farm for a decade following a devastating battle with their nemesis the Anti-God, the characters try to unravel the mystery of where they are, why they’re there, and how they can escape.
This is a story that begins after the superheroing ends. One that’s rooted in a kind of reality, but isn’t afraid to draw on the zaniest elements that the genre has to offer. Lemire takes us on a wild journey, with superheroes, robots, witches, Martians, and interdimensional travel, all of which is layered over this vast existential conspiracy that threatens all of reality.
Black Hammer is an homage and a history lesson, one that lovingly remixes all the tropes we know and love, adding to the genre while deconstructing it at the same time. Believe me when I say that this ranks right up there alongside the likes of Hellboy, and The Umbrella Academy, and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. I dare even say Watchmen. Black Hammer is the kind of thing that Alan Moore would have written in his prime.
The series has since grown into something of its own superhero universe, with multiple spin-offs and side stories, all of which have been an absolute delight. The latest, Black Hammer: Visions, is a fantastic anthology series that boasts some truly great writers including, Patton Oswalt, Geoff Johns, Mariko Tamaki, Scott Snyder, Chip Zdarsky, Kelly Thompson, and Cullen Bunn.
Ultramega (James Harren, Dave Stewart, Rus Wooten)
I grew up on a steady diet of kaiju fare. My daily pre-homework ritual would always involve sitting in front of the TV, bowl of cereal in hand, and watching whatever half hour monster mash was on, be it Ultraman, or Ksatria Baja Hitam (that’s Kamen Rider Black to anyone who didn’t grow up watching it in Malaysia), or Space Cop Gaban. I’ve never really outgrown my love for tokusatsu entertainment, and while I can’t quite explain why, I can tell you that there was something about those grotesque monsters and flamboyant robots that excited my imagination.
Of late, this sort of kaiju content has been making a sort of a mainstream resurgence. Legendary’s Monsterverse movies have been a mixed bag. Marvel’s take on Ultraman is giving us something of an excellent throwback. While Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim remains the standard bearer on how to do loving homage.
Which brings me to Ultramega, a brand new series by James Harren, Dave Stewart, and Rus Wooten, which might just be the freshest, most grown-up take on the genre I have yet encountered.
The series begins in an incredibly familiar way before setting up what appears to be a clever deconstruction of the genre that is one part Toho, one part Carpenter, and one part Cronenberg.
A mysterious plague has swept across the globe and transformed all those infected into colossal monsters that regularly attack cities. The planet’s only defense are the Ultramega, three chosen individuals who have been imbued with cosmic power that allow them to battle the kaiju directly, by growing to the size of these monstrous creatures. The story kicks off when our heroes are confronted with the shocking side effects of their powers and its consequence on the world.
Ultramega doesn’t pull any punches. Not with regards to the dark chickens-coming-home-to-roost tale that it’s telling. And not in the bloody and violent way it’s chosen to tell it. The action here is big and bombastic. The body horror is deeply unsettling. And thanks to a triple-sized first issue (it’s 66 pages long!), there is a whole lot of it for you to enjoy.
Dave Stewart’s use of colour in this series deserves a special mention. The way he deploys his palette, in depicting the grotesque, and the cosmic, and the down to Earth, really channels how the comic wants you to feel at any particular moment – from unease, to confusion, to creeping dread.
Only the first issue of Ultramega is out so you can jump right in on the ground floor. I highly recommend it. And not just because of that incredible twist at the end that bears the promise of something altogether unexpected.
Follow Us